Change

 Change.

It's been over a year since my last blog post and I guess for good reason. On May 16 last year, things really changed in my life. I underwent deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery. Yes, it sounds sort of Frankensteinish, but actually tens of thousands of people in the US reap great benefits from this surgery each year. It helps bring back or maintain some physical functionality that is taken away by various neurological diseases. I've been battling Parkinson's Disease (PD) for 15 years and this surgery was to return to me new physical abilities lost to PD.

Shock.

So I awoke from surgery on May 18, 2023 (alarms should be going off) and I experienced shock, of a scary kind. I was fully aware (as I still am!!) but I couldn't speak. As a matter of fact, I couldn't chew, swallow or speak. I was a prisoner in my own body. Maybe like those movies where someone has been in a coma for days or weeks and then wakes up and tells their loved ones that they heard everything they said at their bedside. My condition was called dysphasia. And apparently, I won the lottery because this happens only one in ten-thousand or so cases. It was most likely caused by a slight brain bleed when the DBS probes were inserted through my skull into my brain to relieve stiffness and other PD symptoms. Many folks recover totally from dysphasia. I am still on the waiting list.

Fast forward after four months of hospital/rehab facility care and eight months of in-home care and therapy; I can now chew and swallow better, I am maintaining my weight and health after losing over a hundred pounds, and I am hopeful that my sometimes good to not so intelligible speech will get better. I have some amazing care people and therapists helping me to live at home and get out and about via wheelchair, walker and Chris (the primary care giver aka amazing and dashingly handsome husband  . . . ok his payment for typing this). Oh, did I forget to mention that some type of PD dystonia has made it impossible to type; even chicken pecking.

Content.

Enough about me. I heard a message at church centered on Philippians 4:11 where the apostle Paul, who suffered much more than I have these past 12 months says that he has "learned" to be content in whatever circumstances he's faced. The key, though, is that his contentment is not sourced from anything on this planet, nor from any person. His contentment he says comes from Christ through whom he can do all things. So here I am, leaning on that same person, still hoping for the shock and change to turn into something that will glorify God, and I hope you can do the same!

Forward.

Life moves in one direction; forward. The name of this blog is Road In Retirement. My road has taken an unexpected twist, but I am going to continue to move forward, and share stories, the good and the bad, of living with PD and being retired.